5 Milk substitutes for lactose intolerance
Having a food allergy is no fun, but making the right adjustments to your diet can help make your journey easier. Here are a few lactose-free options.
Does a glass of ice Milo from the coffeeshop in the morning send you running for the toilet? Are you Asian and lactose intolerant? Then that is very likely.
Coming from South Asia, it is no surprise that as much as about 90 percent of South Asians have been reported to suffer from lactose intolerance.
What is lactose intolerance you ask? It is the inability to digest the sugars found in dairy products due to a deficiency of the lactase enzyme in the digestive system. South Asians are three times more likely to have this intolerance than in other ethnicities. Symptoms of lactose intolerant include bloating, cramping, flatulence, nausea and more commonly diarrhoea.
So what’s a lactose intolerant girl got to do? Luckily there are many milk substitutes on the market for us to adequately enjoy ‘dairy’ products and get our calcium intake at the same time.
Non-dairy milk
One of the more common milk substitutes and thankfully, we live in Singapore where we can easily find fresh soya bean milk in almost any hawker centre. Apart from that the supermarkets here are well-stocked with ‘milk’ from rice, nuts, oats or hemp. There is even lactose-free milk available on the shelves.
Coconut cream
If you’re cooking and the recipe calls for cream, coconut cream makes for a good substitute. Simply blend half a cup of coconut cream with half a cup of soya milk to create your own ‘cream’.
Yoghurt
If you choose items with lesser amount of lactose like ‘live bacteria’ yoghurt it should pose no problems as the milk sugars have already been broken down.
Fermented cheese
Depending on your level of intolerance, you may be able to consume aged cheeses with low lactose in small amounts. Hard cheeses like Swiss, Parmesan or blue cheeses have about 2g of lactose per serving. That is a lot better than the 11g of lactose in a glass of milk!
Lactase enzyme tablets
If adjusting your diet is too much of a hassle, consider adding lactase enzyme supplements to your diet. These pills help break down the milk sugars and you’ll be able to have dairy products as usual. Do consult your doctor before starting on any new supplements.
Cheryl Lee
